It seems like it's been a while since our last edition, but I have a feeling we'll be busy here at TLP the next six weeks. So let's get on to the fun, Here are two articles from the Philadelphia Daily News:

Was it the last walk from the field of Reid's 14-year Eagles coaching career?

A high-ranking team source told the Daily News it was not, that Reid will coach the Eagles next Monday night against the Carolina Panthers.

Told during the game that fans want to hear from team chairman Jeffrey Lurie, their 3-7 team having dropped six games in a row in increasingly ugly fashion, a team spokesman said Lurie was unlikely to speak Sunday. He didn't say anything about Monday.

As the Birds packed their belongings to head home after a 31-6 thumping by the host Washington Redskins, it didn't really seem to matter much who runs this shipwreck through the final 6 weeks.

Asked if he thinks he will keep his job the rest of the season, Reid said: "We need to get ready for the Monday night game; that's what we're going to do."

Asked if he feels his team is getting worse, Reid said: "Well, we didn't look better today."

No 3-7 team has ever made the playoffs. Told that, Reid said: "We're going to keep battling."

To say this loss could not have been a bigger disaster would have seemed at least a little hyperbolic, until LeSean McCoy banged helmets with a tackler, the Eagles' best player unaccountably still carrying the mail with 1 minute and 45 seconds left in a game his team trailed by 25 points.

McCoy left the field on a cart after having suffered a concussion, Reid confirmed. Asked why McCoy was still in the game at that point, Reid said: "Because we were trying to catch up and win the game."

As answers go, that one made no sense, which made it a microcosm of the season. Reid's defense has gotten steadily worse since he fired coordinator Juan Castillo during the bye week; the four quarterbacks the Eagles have faced since then have all posted passer ratings above 120, and Sunday, Redskins rookie phenom Robert Griffin III achieved perfection: a 158.3 rating, on 14 completions in 15 attempts for 200 yards and four touchdowns. Griffin also ran 14 times for 84 yards.

Reid's offensive line unveiled perhaps its most ineffective configuration yet Sunday, with Jake Scott, the guard signed from off his couch a week ago Monday, starting at right guard and rookie Dennis Kelly moving out to right tackle. Danny Watkins, the 2011 first-round pick with the wonky ankle, was deemed available only for emergency duty. This hapless, penalty-prone group watched a Redskins defense that had been ranked 28th in the NFL strip away any possible shred of hope from the starting debut of rookie quarterback Nick Foles. Foles threw a pair of early interceptions and finished with 21 completions in 46 attempts for 204 yards and a 40.5 passer rating.

"He made a few young-guy mistakes that he'll learn from," Reid said. "We'll give him an opportunity to correct those, and he'll correct them."

Foles gets lots of slack for the horrible offensive line, and the fact that he spent more than half the season running practice-squad plays, then had to jump in, with little time to develop timing. But even when you grade on that curve, he was not promising. In fact, after the Redskins started looking for his screens and dumps, he was downright bad.

"Today was a rough game. I didn't play well at all," said Foles, who stepped in for concussed Michael Vick. "I need to do things a lot better. But I'm a guy, I take this stuff and I'll learn from it . . . It's really tough . . . I gotta make better decisions, and put us in a better position."

The first set of bad vibrations from this game shook the Eagles on the third snap of the day. Third-and-8 from the Birds' 23, Foles scrambled and tried to zip a ball into a tight window to tight end Brent Celek. Celek, once a reliable, solid soldier, has somehow become a liability, as he showed when he batted the ball to Redskins corner DeAngelo Hall.

So the Redskins started at the Eagles' 9, and scored two plays later.

Foles threw another first-quarter pick that wasn't a receiver's fault. Then, to cap a horrible first half, the Eagles: 1) Called timeout before a Redskins punt in the final minute; 2) Still didn't have 11 players on the field when Washington lined up to punt; 3) Got the ball and handed off with 36 seconds left rather than kneeling; 4) Fumbled the ball away (McCoy), and best of all, 5) Lined up with 12 men to defend against the eventual gift Redskins field goal.

It's really difficult to view that sequence as anything less than a complete meltdown by players and coaches, the sort of thing other teams will see on film and giggle about.

Asked why he took the timeout, Reid said: "That's just what I chose to do."

The Eagles trailed 17-3 at halftime and never came close to scoring a touchdown. Facing what had been the NFL's 30th-ranked pass defense, Foles completed only eight passes to wide receivers, five of those to emergency slot man Riley Cooper, playing for injured Jason Avant. His longest completion came when McCoy rambled 25 yards with a pass.

Asked what he thinks upper management must feel about the Eagles right now, Celek said: "I wouldn't be happy if I was them. I'm sure they're not. This is a talented team. As players, we're not making plays. I don't get it."

Is this the kind of game that gets coaches fired?

"I don't know," Celek said. "I have no idea."

Celek was clearly upset, as he has been after previous losses in this era-ending cataclysm. The Redskins came in off their bye, but also on a three-game losing streak, with the same 3-6 record as the Eagles.

"This is our job. This is what we're supposed to do, and we're failing at it," Celek said.

DeSean Jackson was asked if this is the low point of his career, after the Eagles plummeted to the largest losing margin to an NFC East foe since Reid arrived in 1999.

"So far, since I've been here, yes," Jackson said. "I'm in my fifth year and our record is 3-7 and I've never witnessed that in my life."

Left guard Evan Mathis said the record should reflect on the players, not on their coaches. He referenced "rookie mistakes by our veterans."

"We are not consistent right now," Mathis said. "We are not a consistent football team, and that's what it takes to win in the NFL . . . You can't pinpoint one thing and say, 'Oh, that's their problem.' We're making a lot of mistakes."

Wideout Jeremy Maclin, who had no catches, was asked to evaluate Foles.

"When you have . . . a guy making his first start in the league, other guys have to elevate their game, and I felt like as a team, we didn't do that," Maclin said.

Reid said he thought at times players were trying too hard. Certainly Sunday it seemed the bigger the deficit, the more pathetic the play, on both sides of the ball.

"For a quarter or two, you're looking good and then something slips, and then it keeps slipping," corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said.

LANDOVER, Md. - Somewhere, Juan Castillo is laughing right now. And if he isn't, he damn well should be.

The defense that Castillo was deemed unfit to lead last month has been an absolute joke since Andy Reid's mid-October panic move.

And I'm not laying this on Castillo's replacement, Todd Bowles. I'm laying it on a group of defensive players that aren't nearly as good as they think they are.

"It's frustrating," safety Kurt Coleman said after Sunday's embarrassing, 31-6 loss to the Redskins in which rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III threw four touchdown passes and just one incompletion in 15 attempts. "Because we have what I feel is the best back-end group in the National Football League.

"The majority of the game we were playing well. It's those few miscommunication plays that are killing us."

Played well? They gave up four touchdown passes to a rookie quarterback, albeit one who was the second pick in the draft. Griffin finished the game with a perfect 158.3 passer rating. He averaged 13.3 yards per attempt.

And this wasn't an isolated case. In the first six games, with Castillo running the defense, the Eagles defense allowed 20.8 points per game. In the four games since he was canned, they're giving up 31.8 a pop.

In the first six games, the Eagles' opponent passer rating was 76.8.

The last four games it's 143.5. Their last four opponents have completed an astounding 78.3 percent of their attempts and have averaged 9.4 yards per attempt. In those four games, the Eagles have given up 11 touchdown passes and have no interceptions.

"I feel we haven't played up to the level we had been playing at," said cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who gave up his fifth touchdown pass of the season in the second quarter when Aldrick Robinson, who won't be going to the Pro Bowl anytime soon, beat Asomugha for a 49-yard score.

Yes, Asomugha should have had safety help over the top from Nate Allen.

But this is a guy who not so long ago was considered one of the league's top shutdown corners. He should be able to stay with a guy who was a sixth-round pick in the 2011 draft and had nine career receptions before Sunday.

"It just seems like the mentality on defense after the bye week [changed]," Asomugha said. "The plays that we were making, we weren't making them anymore. We started missing tackles and missing assignments. Stuff we hadn't been doing."

The Eagles fell behind 2 minutes into the game when Allen was late getting over to cover fullback Darrel Young, who scored on a 6-yard pass from Griffin.

In the second quarter, Asomugha didn't get the over-the-top help he needed from Allen on Robinson. In the third quarter, 5-10 Santana Moss, who was double-covered by Coleman and Brandon Boykin, managed to snare a 62-yard touchdown pass over the 5-11 Coleman. Maybe Moss pushed him and maybe he didn't. That's still no excuse for one guy beating out two guys for an up-for-grabs pass.

"I was in perfect position and I fall backwards, all of a sudden," Coleman said. [The official) didn't make the call. But I have to be able to make that play. It wasn't like I had Andre Johnson over the top of me. It is what it is."

It wasn't a good day for Coleman, who also gave up a 17-yard touchdown pass to tight end Logan Paulsen in the fourth quarter.

The touchdown passes to Moss and Paulsen both came on third down.

Griffin completed all three of his third-down attempts against the Eagles. In the last four games, opposing quarterbacks have completed 22 of 29 third-down pass attempts for 338 yards and four touchdowns against the Eagles. That's a 153.4 third-down passer rating. Seventeen of those 22 completions have been for first downs or touchdowns.

In the first six games, the Eagles had a 72.5 third-down opponent passer rating. Just 15 of 32 third-down completions resulted in first downs or touchdowns.

The Eagles' offense at least has an excuse for the way they've played this season. Injuries. Not so with the defense. Their starters have missed a total of three games - two by weakside linebacker Akeem Jordan and one by Allen.

"I felt coming into the season we had probably the best secondary in the NFL," said Boykin, the team's rookie nickel corner. "And I still do believe that. But at the same time, you've got to put it on film. And we haven't been doing that lately. So I can't really say [that we're the best]."

Bowles made a few changes after replacing Castillo, but nothing significant. Nothing that should have caused his unit to bottom out like it has.

"The game plans are different, said Asomugha. "Every defensive coordinator has his way of calling a game. He's been calling his different from Juan. But we respect that and believe in what he's doing.

"The issue has been on our part. Making the mistakes we hadn't been making throughout the year."

Bottom line is the Eagles' defense isn't as good as we thought it was.

I like Coleman, but he should be a core special-teamer not a starting strong safety. At 31, Asomugha's skills are starting to erode. Age and wear-and-tear also seems to be catching up with defensive ends Jason Babin and Trent Cole and defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins.

"It's not just the secondary," Coleman said. "It's a full team effort. All sides of the ball and special teams. It's a team when we win and it's a team when we lose. We all have to pick our game up. We all have to play better and execute. Not just the secondary. That's everybody."

A year ago, the Eagles had a league-best 50 sacks. Through 10 games this year, they have 14. They went three games earlier this season without a sack.

A secondary that fancies itself the best in the league should have a ton of interceptions. This one has seven. And four of them came in the first game of the season against the Browns. Despite the presence of two Pro Bowl corners, the Eagles have just two interceptions in the last eight games.

"When you're in position to make a play you gotta make a play," said cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. "We didn't do that today.

"The turnovers have to come. We're not making turnovers. That's frustrating. Especially with the ability we have on the back end to go out and make plays. I can't speak for anyone else. But I know for a fact I can go out and play better. I know for a fact we can play harder."

LANDOVER, Md. - It isn't just the rest of the football world that is talking about the end of the Andy Reid era with the Eagles.

The players are starting to see the writing on the wall.

Three veteran Eagles said that Sunday's 31-6 loss to the Redskins was likely the final nail in the coffin for their head coach.

"I know it. I know it," said one defensive player who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject. "And the only reason I'm here is because of Andy. Some vets have been talking about how the next [coach] may want his own guy."

Of the many players sampled, all said that they remained fiercely loyal to Reid. Several, like tackle King Dunlap, said that they believed they still had a chance to turn the season around and save Reid's job.

"In my opinion, he's the best coach in the NFL," Dunlap said.

Reid was asked if he expected to be able to finish out the season as head coach.

"We need to get ready for the Monday night game," was all he said.

Jeffrey Lurie was not available for comment. A team spokesman said that the Eagles owner would not answer questions. Lurie said before the season that he would not talk about Reid or his team's performance until after the season.

Still, with the Eagles 3-7 and Lurie's preseason ultimatum that Reid needed to deliver a "substantial improvement" upon last season's 8-8 finish hanging over the Eagles, it is clear that Reid is as close to be fired as he's ever been.

Lurie has never fired a coach mid-season. During his first season as owner, the Eagles lost their final seven games of the season and finished 7-9, at which point Rich Kotite was fired. The Eagles went 3-13 in 1998 under Ray Rhodes, but Lurie waited again until after the season to dismiss his coach.

Tight end Brent Celek was asked about the Eagles' front office and the current losing streak.

"I wouldn't be happy if I was them," Celek said. "I'm sure they're not. This is a talented team and us players, we're not making plays. I don't get it."

ARLINGTON – Jerry Jones is possibly the best salesman in NFL history. The man could find a way to put a positive spin on a 0-16 season. But not even the normally optimistic Cowboys owner and general manager seemed upbeat when asked several times about playoff possibilities following the Cowboys’ 38-31 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Washington Redskins at Cowboys Stadium.

“All I can do is just sit here and look at the numbers,” Jones said Thursday, standing in the Cowboys locker room. “It looks like our best opportunity would be to end up with the best record in the NFC East. I don’t know what that’s going to be. I don’t know if 8-8 will get it there or not, and I sure don’t know if we’re going to be 8-8.

“I’m not trying to be negative, but we’ve got to play these guys again. With how impressed I am with how they played, we’ve got our hands full up there for the last ballgame.”

Wait, was that really Jerry Jones?

Yes, and he continued with the same tone.

“I’m just like everybody,” Jones said. “I see our numbers. I see where we are. I see how we played against this team.”

He added: “I’m very disappointed. I thought this was a critical game for us because it was with a division opponent.”

At 5-6, the Cowboys currently sit in 11th place out of 16 NFC teams, a game and a half back of the Seattle Seahawks for the final Wild Card spot and a game and a half back of the New York Giants for the NFC East lead.

Passing the Seahawks is unrealistic because they own the tiebreaker over the Cowboys from a defeat earlier this year.

To complicate things further, the Redskins, who the Cowboys play in Week 17, also possess a 5-6 record.

STAR-TELEGRAM/ROSS HAILEYWashington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III runs on a keeper play during the Washington Redskins against the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboy Stadium. Seen in Arlington, TX on November 22, 2012

ARLINGTON -- The Dallas Cowboys fell behind big in the first half against the Washington Redskins on Thursday before rallying to make a game of it, showing a lot of heart and desire.

Few care.

The eventual 38-31 loss, spurred by an embarrassing second quarter when former Baylor quarterback and rookie sensation Robert Griffin III threw three touchdown passes and led the Redskins to 28 points, is all that matters.

The Cowboys' two-game winning streak was snapped and their hopes of making a playoff run took another critical setback as they fell back under .500 at 5-6, while putting the future of coach Jason Garrett back in question.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones maintains that he is not interested in making a coaching change -- even though hot candidates such as New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and Cleveland Browns general manager Mike Holmgren are rumored to be interested.

He also declined to assess the progress the Cowboys have made under Garrett, who is 18-17 since taking over for the fired Wade Phillips midway through the 2010 season. Garrett has only won six of his past 16 games.

"That would be real difficult right now because you would have to point to things like comebacks and that's hollow when you are not winning the game," Jones said. "It's disappointing to be here. I thought this was a critical game for us because it was with a division opponent."

Where the Cowboys are, according to Jones, is basically out of the chase for a wild-card spot in the NFC and needing to win the NFC East, if they have any hopes of making the playoffs.

He is still hopeful, not optimistic. The Cowboys trail the New York Giants (6-4) and the Redskins (5-6) in the standings and must play Griffin and the Redskins again at the end of the season.

"It looks like our best opportunity would be to end up with the best record in the NFC East," Jones said. "I don't know what that's going to be. I don't know if 8-8 will get it there or not, and I sure don't know if we're going to be 8-8."

Outside of likely not wanting to see Griffin again -- he completed 20 of 28 passes for 311 yards and four touchdowns in the game, recording a sizzling 132.6 passer rating -- the Cowboys have a number of injury concerns that could impact their ability to make a playoff run.

The Cowboys have 10 days to rest before playing the Philadelphia Eagles (3-6) at Cowboys Stadium and a number of them could be back. But as Jones pointed out, the injuries had little to do with the Cowboys' failures against the Redskins, and they must find a way to play better.

Garrett declined to answer a question about the progress the team has made under him.

But he agreed with Jones, saying the team needs to find a way to play for a full 60 minutes and not just the second half after falling behind.

Credit quarterback Tony Romo and receiver Dez Bryant for leading the rally.

Romo completed 37 of 62 passes for 441 yards and touchdowns of 85 and 11 yards to Bryant, who had eight catches for a career-high tying 145 yards.

The last touchdown came with 8:18 left in the game, making the score 35-28 and seemingly giving the Cowboys hope. But that was before Griffin led the Redskins to a 48-yard field goal, putting the game away.

The rally doesn't offset the miscues in the first half -- including two Romo interceptions and a fumble by Bryant that helped fuel the Redskins' second-quarter surge.

It also doesn't excuse the litany of big plays given up by the defense nor its inability to get a stop when it mattered in the fourth quarter.

"We need to get off to better starts," Romo said. "It's disappointing. I don't know how to explain it other than we need to play better."

Jones said Cowboys "sucked air" out of crowd, disappointed with their poor play at Cowboys StadiumClarence Hill

The loss to the Redskins Thursday dropped the Cowboys record to 2-3 at Cowboys Stadium this season and continued a disappointing trend of being unable to win at the $1.2 billion facility. They are a frustrating 16-14 since it opened in 2009.But Jones doesn't blame the fans or the sterileness of the facility. He said the fans were in it on Thursday but the team let them down with the 28-point surge by the Redskins in the second quarter.Any hopes the Cowboys had of making a playoff run after getting off to a 4-5 start was because of a favorable schedule that had them playing five of their last seven games at home _ starting with Cleveland last Sunday, the Redskins Thursday, the Eagles Dec 2, a road game at Cincinnati Dec. 9 before back to back home games against the Steelers and Saints preceding the season final at the Redskins."You can’t expect and you can’t plan and you can’t do things to not be able to play well at home," Jones said. "You know that there are bigger challenges on the road. It’s very disappointing to be here. We’re good at coming back at home. You can’t ask for a crowd to be with you more than that crowd was when we started this game. You suck all the air out of it with the combination of their good play and us not getting it done."

until Dan Snyder lets NFL people make ALL the decisions on who coaches & plays, we will be a mediocre franchise each season starts with high hopes & expectations - & ends with us knowing we should have done better with who we have

It could have been much worse for them if we had not gone into prevent D and a some what conservative offense in the second half. Of course DHalls non score. I don't blame him just wish that didn't happen.

Kilmer72 wrote:It could have been much worse for them if we had not gone into prevent D and a some what conservative offense in the second half. Of course DHalls non score. I don't blame him just wish that didn't happen.

I agree.. my ~42 to 13 prediction was actually a possibility had we not laid off the throttle on both sides of the ball.
I'm on the fence about the D hall non td... He took the injury factor of a KO and a play or two for our D out of the equation which was smart but for me the victory formation on the pukes goal line is talkin crap AND rubbing salt in the wound... We didn't need a score we had already defeated them, and making them line up and except it was fun for me lol

Kilmer72 wrote:It could have been much worse for them if we had not gone into prevent D and a some what conservative offense in the second half. Of course DHalls non score. I don't blame him just wish that didn't happen.

I agree.. my ~42 to 13 prediction was actually a possibility had we not laid off the throttle on both sides of the ball.I'm on the fence about the D hall non td... He took the injury factor of a KO and a play or two for our D out of the equation which was smart but for me the victory formation on the pukes goal line is talkin crap AND rubbing salt in the wound... We didn't need a score we had already defeated them, and making them line up and except it was fun for me lol

Don't forget about Ebenezer dragging Jeff George around. I hate that team with a passion. We owe them an aggravating, demoralizing loss.

"I’m never under the assumption that you draft for need. You draft the best available football player on the board. ... Because, in the long run, they are the ones who will help you win the most games." - Scot McCloughan